Gratitude month. Gratitude is good for your health. And your mind. And your heart. Especially if you’ve seen the TV or a newspaper recently.

My heart struggles with the weight of recent events. Can I do something? What should I tell my kids? And how to respond to friends’ FB posts that shout that they know exactly how to fix this mess “AND UNFRIEND ME IF YOU DISAGREE.” My least favorite post.

Except that humanity has always been a mess. The tragic, horrible truth is that there have been good and evil and people killing each other, for no reason that I can comprehend, pretty much for forever. Why does this seem to be baked into our race?

What did the mothers do during WWI? WWII? In the killing fields of Cambodia? In the Jim Crow South? On the streets of Chicago today?

What can we do now?

In my opinion (and opinions abound right now, so feel free to take my humble words or leave them, as you need. I don’t pretend to have anything like all the answers) we raise our kids. We pay attention. We make the world a better place in every way we can. At bedtime, at the dinner table, at the grocery store.

We live on, even though.

Even though we’ll never be perfectly safe. Even though there are crazy people out there. Even though we’re sad or angry. We muster our courage and our strength and all our determination and we live on. We commit to goodness, we love and feed our kids with hugs and kisses and hot cocoa with toast.

“This is what the good people do. We keep going.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Road)

Even though.

Because if we stop doing those things, then evil wins, and we cannot allow that.

And yes, write an email to your senator if you feel like you have an answer (I’m going to). We live in the free speech USA, your opinion matters.

But my personal belief is that the way you live your life matters more.

Write up a gratitude list to remind yourself of all the good in the world. Live in such a way that everyone who interacts with you comes away the better for it. Make sure your children and your husband know you love them.